NAAC report of Balwant Vidyapeeth Rural Institute

Balwant Vidyapeeth Rural Institute (BVRI) located at Bichpuri (Agra) offered itself for assessment and accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NACC) and submitted its Self Study Report to it. The NAAC constituted a Committee for revalidation of the Self Study Report and to visit the Institute for obtaining additional information, consisting of (1) Prof. Uttam B. Bhoite, Pune, Chairman (2) Prof. Har Gopal, Hyderabad (3) Prof. Sudhir D. Sharma, Ahmednagar.

The Committee visited the Institute on 9'th & 10'th February, 2007. It is presenting its report below based on the documents submitted to it, the interactions which it had with various stake-holders including a few parents and alumni and examination of infrastructural facilities.

Brief History
The BVRI was established in the year 1956 with the sponsorship of Ministry of Education, Government of India and in accordance with the recommendations of the University Education Commission (1948-1949) and of the Committee of Higher Education for Rural Areas (1955). The Institute functioned under the supervision of the National Council for Rural Higher Education till 1971, the year in which it got affiliated to Dr. B.R.A. University, Agra.

The objectives which the institute was established are:

To bring about the fusion of rural and urban cultures.
To provide opportunities for the students and researchers to pursue research having relevance for rural people and their problems.
To provide education to the rural boys and girls, useful for both rural as well as urban occupation.

The Campus
The Institute's campus is located at a distance of 7 Kms from the outskirts of Agra Municipal Corporation area. It covers a piece of land measuring 10.20 acres. The institute is located in the rural surroundings.

Building
The Institute has its own double storied building, the total built-up area of which is 5671 sq. mtrs. The building is spacious and well ventilated. It was built up with the financial support of Ford Foundation.

The Institute is recognised by the U.G.C. under the Sections 2(F) and 12(B) of its Act in the year 1978. It is a grant-in-aid institution. The unit cost of education in the Institute is Rs. 10,506/- with salary component and Rs. 670/- excluding salary component. It gets only the salary grant from the State Government and it has to generate its own revenues for the maintenance and other expenditure. It generates additional funding by charging Developmental Fee to the students. Its revenues from other sources are very meager.

Its students strength during the year 2006-2007 was 738 including 27 Post Graduate students. It gets its students mainly from its neighbourhood. Till the year 2004-2005, it had a few students from African countries but that source is now drying-up. The number of female students at Undergraduate level is 200 and at Post Graduate level 12. There are two teachers on the roll of the Institute who are recognized as Research Guides by the university and they are guiding at present two students each. The institute has recently started an additional batch for BA students which is self-financing. The tuition fees charged are Rs. 132.00 for Under Graduate programs, and Rs. 180.00 for Post Graduate Programs and Rs.1500/- for self-financing B.A. programme.

The criterion wise-analysis of the information collected about the Institute
Criterion 1 - Curricular Aspects
The Institute runs both Under Graduate (BA) and Post Graduate (MA) programs. A student enrolled at B.A. level has to study 3 papers as compulsory and 8 papers as optional papers.

The institute runs following two Post Graduate Programms:

Rural Economics & Co-operation.

Rural Sociology & Community Development.

These two Post Graduate Programmes were designed by the faculty of the Institute and are being taught only at this institute. Another distinguishing feature of the course structure of this institute is that three application oriented courses namely (1) Village Industries, (2) Horticulture, (3) Fisheries are launched in this Institute.

These are the courses which have local social and economic relevance. There are no obligatory internship programs being run in this Institute. The Institute does not seem to have made any attempt to get a feed back from the employees about its academic programmes.

Since the Institute is an affiliated one and so major decisions with regard to the re-framing of the syllabi and other modifications are taken at the University level. However, it is gratifying to note that the University had allowed the faculty of the Institute to frame the syllabi of its PG and some of the courses at the B.A. level.

Criterion 2 - Teaching, learning & evaluation
Since the Institute is a grant-in-aid institute, the appointments of the faculty members are made by the State Government. However, it has permission to appoint part-time and visiting teachers from its own revenue. The total number of teaching positions sanctioned by the Government are 19 out of which 12 are filled in and 7 are vacant for a long period. Among the permanent faculty members there is one lady teacher who is a lecturer. Among the faculty members there are 6 readers, 7 full time lecturers and 6 part time lecturers. All the teachers are from the same state except one. The number of teachers having Ph.D degree is 12 and with M.Phil degree is 1. In the previous academic year the total number of working days of the Institute was 267 and that of the teaching days 186.

During the last 5 years, 10 teachers attended refresher courses and 5 attended orientation courses. None of the teachers is a beneficiary of the UGCs Faculty Development Programme during last five years. The major mode of teaching is Lecture Method and there is no Tutor - Ward system in the Institute. The Institute does not conduct any remedial or bridge courses. The Institute does have certain teaching aids such as Over Head Projectors, LCD Projectors etc. It has developed laboratories for the subjects like Fisheries and Horticulture which need further upgradation. There were no evidence to confirm whether the teachers prepare their teaching plan in advance. The Institute has still not introduced the method of ' Assessment of Teachers by Students'. The teachers prepare their Self Appraisal Reports and submit them to the Principal who gives instructions, if any, to teachers for improvement of their performance. The Institute has not institutionalized system of conducting internal evaluation of students performance. The annual examinations are conducted by the University.

The Departmental profiles submitted to the Committee by the Institute reveal:

Three out of 9 departments are single faculty departments.

Only four teachers have publications to their credit (during the last 5 years).

Only two teachers have attended one National Level Seminar each.
One teacher was involved in Consultancy Work. Only two teachers have undertaken Funded Research Projects.

Two teachers have successfully guided five students each for Ph.D degrees.

None of the teachers received any awards or recognitions.

One of the teacher has gone abroad for teaching / research purposes.

It is gratifying to note that the success rate of the students at various University Examinations subject wise are quite high ranging between 80 & 92 percent.

There are no departmental libraries in the Institute. Apparently no serious effort has been done by the Institute for the Faculty Development as such.

Criterion 3 - Research Consultancy & Extension
Rsearch
The Institute is recognized as Research Centre. Two of the teachers are recognized as Research Guides. The Institute does not provide any Research Funding to the teachers. Only two teachers have undertaken funded Research Projects during the last 5 years. There are no ongoing Research Projects in the Institute.

Publications
Four teachers have published some articles in journals during the previous five years.

Extension
The Institute does not have NSS unit. However it has an NCC unit of 50 cadets as well as a unit of Rovers and Rangers. These two units are involved in extension activities besides the students of Rural Sociology and Community Development course. The rank of the NCC Officer is Major.

Criterion 4 - Infrastructure and learning resources.
The Institute, as said earlier, has its own campus spread over 10.2 acres, which its shares with another sister institutions. It has a building with a built up area of 5671 sq. mtrs. The number of class rooms available is 11. All the class rooms are adequately furnished. There are 25 teachers' cabins There are laboratories provided for the subjects on Fisheries and Horticulture. There is a separate Retiring Room for girl students. The number of toilets available for both the ladies and gents are quite adequate. There is a very large Assembly Hall which can easily accommodate 1000 students at a time. Besides, there is a well-furnished Seminar Room.

Library
The Institute's library is housed in a separate building. The Institute shares the library building with a sister institution. However, the books of each of them are stacked separately and there are separate Accessing Registers and Issuing Registers for both the institutes. The Reading Hall is fairly well-furnished and is very large which can accommodate about 650 students at a time. The Library is kept open between 10.00 am to 4.00 pm in all the working days,

The total number of books in the shelves of the library is 23296 and the number of titles is 12733. The Library subscribes to 14 journals. However, there are a few subjects of which the journals are not subscribed to.

The number of reference books in the library is only 570. There is only one encyclopedia in the library. However there is a large collection of back volumes (2600).

The budgetary provisions for the books of different subjects are not made separately. The Institute spends a very small amount for purchase of books and so the faculty and students do not have access to the latest literature of their subjects.

There is no separate internet connection in the library. There are no other facilities such as Xerox Machine available in the Library. The Library is not computerized. There are no audio/video cassettes available in the Library.

Computer & Learning Resources
There are only 6 computers in the whole institute, 5 of them are used in the teaching departments and one is equipped with the Internet facility. There is hardly any computer based teaching programme in the Institute.

Other facilities
There are separate Hostels for boys and girls with 50 & 4 rooms respectively. However, they are all unoccupied as there is no demand for the same from the students. Most of the students are from nearby areas. There is a large canteen which is common for the institutions in the campus. There is Water Cooler facility available. The institute does not have its own Health Centre. However, there is a Primary Health Centre of Government located in the campus itself.

There is a Placement Cell but it is not in full operation. The Institute has its own play ground in which facilities for games such as Cricket, Volley Ball etc. are available. There is track also. The Institute has purchased some sports equipments. There are two physical instructors working in the Institute. The building and the quarter are given on rent to the postal department by the Institute for postal services to the students and employees.

Teachers' Quarters
Residential facility for 12 teachers is available in the campus. However, at present most of the quarters are unoccupied.

The Institute publishes its Prospectus every year through which information regarding Admission Rules, Course Structure etc. is disseminated to the students.

Criterion 5 - Students Support & Progression
During the academic year 2005-2006, 606 students have enrolled themselves in the college of which 476 are male students and 130 are female students. The Institute follows rules of Reservation with regard to the admissions for the students belonging to Reserved Category. The students are admitted to the various courses subject to the fulfillment of basic eligibility criteria. The Institute does not have much of information about the passed-out post graduate students.

None of its student has passed in NET, SLET, GATE or any other such examinations or Central and State Service Examinations during the last five years.

There is some provision in the budget of the Institute for giving financial aid to needy poor students. The alumni of the Institute have recently established their association and reportedly it had donated Rs. 20,000/- to the Institute.

The Institute has Grievance Redressal Cell. However, the Principal said that he himself sorts out the grievance from the students. There are hardly any other services provided by the Institute to the students.

Student Activities
The Institute, as said earlier, has NCC Unit and Rovers & Rangers Unit. The Institute deputes its teams for participation in the Inter Collegiate tournaments.

There are a few associations of the students formed which give students opportunities to express their expression to their artistic and other talents. As stated earlier, percentage of students passing in various university examinations during the last two years have been quite satisfactory. Drop out rate of students is also negligible.

Criterion 6 - Organisation and Managament.
The Institute is financed by the State Government and in that sense it is a Government run institute. However, there is a Managing Committee of local well wishers and some public figures which takes administrative and policy decisions. It appears that Local Managing Committee does not have any financial responsibility. Accounts of the institute are audited by the Government auditors as well as local auditor. The institute has received from the U.G.C. a grant of Rs. 6,31,176.00 under the 10'th Five Year plan.

Although there are a couple of laboratories in the Institute there are no separate Lab Assistants or Technical persons appointed for these posts. The Institute has developed no mechanism for giving training for proportional development for the professional development for its non-teaching staff.

The Institute has not launched any welfare schemes for its employees. The Institute has constituted a few committees which assist the Principal in administrative work but there are also record of few committees to confirm the same.

The Board of the Management of the Institute apparently meets twice a year and very little business is transacted in its meetings. The Institute has not prepared any perspective plan as such. Since the recruitment of the personnel is done by the Government, the Institute is not required to prepare any manpower planning as such. So far as resource mobilization is concerned, there is very little scope for the Institute to generate additional income. Although the tuition charges for BA & MA courses are meagre, the amount of other fees being charged are fairly high. It appears from the discussions with the Principal that the institute is functioning under various financial constraints.

Criterion 7 - Healthy Practices
Besides the usual course, the institute runs a course at B.A. level named as Raashtra Gaurav which may be considered as a value adding course. This course and a course on environment are compulsory university courses for the students of BA class. There are no special mechanism involved by the Institute for the purpose of Quality Management. So far as the academic innovations are concerned, it is a noticeable fact that the Institute has introduced a new course on Rural Sociology and Community Development from the year 1983.

Overall Analysis
The institute is in rural surrounding. Although it has had a glorious past, presently it is suffering from many constraints. It is facing acute financial difficulties and so its further development is halted. The State Government is not very keen in recruiting the faculty members in the vacant posts and so the teaching work is affected to a very great extent. It is commendable that the Institute has initiated such academic programs related to the Co-operation, Agricultural Marketing, Rural Banking Fisheries, Horticulture and Village Industry and Rural Economics and Co-operation. However, there is emphasis only on teaching of theory part of these courses. The practical application in the Horticulture and Fisheries is almost absent which is a major shortfall. The library building is indeed very impressive but its maintenance is very poor. It needs to be renovated. The faculty members expressed their unhappiness with regard to the poor financial provision for the library.

Sports facilities which are available to the students also need improvement. It is necessary to give more encouragement to the sports activities. The intellectual pursuit among the faculty is not vibrant. They need to be encouraged, supported and guided to undertake Research Projects and publication activities.

From our discussions with the parents and alumni, we learnt that the people in the surrounding areas want the Institute to launch a few more relevant academic programs such as courses in IT, Computer Science, Home Science etc.

In our opinion, the Institute should do more concerted efforts to mobilize resources, not only for its developmental activities but even for its upkeep.

We attended a cultural programme presented by the students. It was quite impressive and showed ample talent of the students which need to be properly tapped. It is our opinion there is a need to revitalize the faculty and involve it more and more in the advancement of the Institute towards its laudable goals and immense relevance to rural society.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Dr. B.B. Barik, the Principal of the Institute, Dr. Parihar, Co-Ordinator, Mr. Puspendra and all of their colleagues for the sincere co-operatrion which they give to us during our stay in the Institute. The hospitality and other facilities were excellent . We wish the Institute a bright future.